40% of Energy Companies Believe Digitalization Can Save 16% or More in Operating Expenses

Aspen Technology, Inc., the asset optimization software company, has announced the results of a recent survey of over 400 energy industry managers and executives about the impact of analytics and big data on the energy business in the next 24 months. The data confirmed that improving reliability is the key objective for upstream and downstream companies as well as the engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) firms that serve them.

To achieve greater asset availability and utilization, organizations are undertaking digital transformation initiatives that use advanced analytics and machine learning to drive significant increases in asset reliability and performance. Survey respondents indicate clear and compelling interest in the potential of analytics to drive operational excellence.

40% of companies believe that digitalization can save 16% or more of operating expenses (OPEX). The potential to achieve high returns on assets with a relentless focus on operational excellence, a holistic asset optimization strategy and a pragmatic execution roadmap is attractive to an industry at the threshold of business and technology disruption. Other key findings include:

Analytics adoption is growing rapidly, with 51% of upstream/midstream firms and 40% of downstream companies currently using or testing data analytics.

Lack of expertise is cited as the top barrier to adopting data analytics, with over a third of respondents reporting no data scientist personnel in the organization. Almost half – 49% of EPCs and 45% of upstream/midstream companies – say lack of in-house expertise is their top barrier to realizing the benefits of analytics.